ussa / CC

While Nike the shoe company is named after Nike the Greek goddess of victory, unfortunately, in dogfighting, there are only losers: Even the victors end up in the grinder at the end of the day. Nike seems to have forgotten that little fact, as the company is reportedly now supplying Michael Vick with "product," although it says it has not signed a promotional contract with the disgraced former dogfighter and current NFL QB.

This begs the question posed in a letter sent by PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk to Nike President and CEO Mark Parker: Why is Nike giving free swag to a guy who admitted laughing when he tossed "family pets" into the ring and watched them get ripped to shreds by trained fighting dogs? Is this a guy you want parading around Philly displaying the Nike swoosh? Unless Nike aspires to corner the bottom-feeding dogfighting market, this plan seems designed to have the company's competitors cheering.

We hope you'll contact Nike, too, and let the company know that if it aspires to alienate anybody and everybody who's ever loved a dog—and to encourage them to change their brand away from Nike—it is sure to be, er, Vick-torious.

Posted by Alisa Mullins

boston / CC

Ever since notorious dog abuser Michael Vick got out of jail and was signed by the apparently desperate Philadelphia Eagles, there has been a lot of discussion in the press and at your local humane society and sports bar about the ethics of his return to the NFL—and all the other issues that go along with it.

Now, the Washington Post (along with media outlets everywhere) is reporting that Nike might again be teaming up with Vick for product endorsements.

Today in the Post's special online NFL feature, "The League," PETA's own Dan Shannon cuts through the noise with a guest post on the subject. Dan puts it bluntly when he writes, "If Nike and other companies know what's best for the bottom line, they won't touch Michael Vick with a 10-foot pole."

Read the whole post here.

Posted by Jeff Mackey

What does PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk think about Michael Vick’s return to the NFL? We’ll let her tell you:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Posted by Shawna Flavell

Click for a larger version

What an award. Their parents must be so proud. :(

To check out the archives of past strips, click here.

PETA and millions of decent football fans around the world are disappointed that the Philadelphia Eagles have chosen to sign a man who hanged dogs from trees, electrocuted them with jumper cables, held them underwater until they drowned in his swimming pool, and even threw his own family dogs into the fighting pit to be torn to shreds while he laughed. What sort of message does this send to young fans who care about animals and don't want to see them be harmed?

PETA certainly hopes that Vick has learned his lesson and feels truly remorseful for his crimes—but since he's given no public indication that that's the case, only time will tell. At this point, all Eagles fans can do is cross their fingers and hope that they won't ever have to explain to their sons and daughters what a "rape rack" is and why their favorite player was using one, as Falcons fans once had to.

Posted by Dan Shannon

Update: Many people have asked us how to complain to the NFL. You can send an e-mail to the NFL through its official contact form here. You can call the main office of the Philadelphia Eagles at 215-463-2500, and you can find mailing addresses here.

Also, please click here to join PETA in asking the NFL to require all its players—some of whom have been involved in a series of cruelty-to-animals cases—to attend PETA's "Developing Empathy for Animals" course. You can also urge the NFL to take cases of animal abuse seriously in the future by updating its policy on personal conduct.

weblogs.baltimoresun / CC

So, Michael Vick has been reinstated, although so far, there are no takers.

Vick has served the reduced sentence negotiated by his high-priced team of fancy lawyers, and the law says that he is entitled to walk free. But that doesn't mean it is acceptable to put him in the position in which children will look up to him as a role model and wear any new jersey that bears his number. For the sake of all the young football fans and all the dogs he electrocuted, drowned, slammed to the ground, and hanged, we will watch carefully to see if he is a newly contrite, kind man these days or still just a lout. Meanwhile, please add your voice to ours in our request to the NFL to add "cruelty to animals" to its personal-conduct policy as an offense that won't be tolerated. Doing that might reduce the likelihood that such lowlife violent crime will happen again.

Posted by Shawna Flavell

How appropriate is it that on the week that convicted dogfighter Michael Vick takes off his ankle bracelet and strolls out of his house a free man, we should roll out our new anti-dogfighting ad starring "Sugar" Shane Mosley?

Let's watch the World Boxing Association's reigning welterweight super champ in action, shall we?

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"Sugar" Shane leads with an uppercut: "I'm a boxer. … My opponents and I know that when we step into the ring, we choose to be there and that if we don't come out on top, we can at least walk away."

Here comes a hook: "Dogfighting isn't like that. Dogs don't have the choice. Many of them get hurt badly or are cruelly killed."

The welterweight super champion finishes with a jab: "Dogfighting is dirty, it's cruel, and it's a loser's game …"

(The crowd of dog defenders stands and cheers the champ.)

Ooh, whatta knockout!

Follow the jump for some sweet, behind the scene footage of "Sugar" Shane.

Posted by Karin Bennett

weblogs.baltimoresun / CC

Now that he's about to get out of jail, it looks like Michael Vick is trying to revamp his image, according to Advertising Age. But it won't be with any help from us.

PETA withdrew our offer to do a TV spot with Michael Vick last December when a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) report on Vick's dogfighting activities revealed that he enjoyed placing “family pets” in the ring with fighting pit bulls and that he laughed as dogs ripped each other apart. PETA believes that this revelation, along with other factors in the report, fit the established profile for anti-social personality disorder (APD), so in January we called on NFL Commissioner Goodell to require that Vick undergo a brain scan and a full psychological evaluation before any decisions are made about the future of his football career.

What can I say? You can't believe everything you read.

Posted by Shawna Flavell

He's hard on his opponents, but he has a soft touch when it comes to animals. Yep, that's how mixed martial arts champ Tito Ortiz rolls. Recently, the tender-hearted tough guy and father of twins (with none other than PETA princess Jenna Jameson) took time out from clocking clowns in the cage to take on dogfighting. In a hard-hitting new ad for PETA, Tito encourages people to stand up to the cowards who make canines do their fighting for them. Did I mention that we're also giving away autographed gear from Tito's clothing line? And while we're on the subject of kick-ass things, here's another behind-the-scenes PETA Files exclusive interview. 'Cuz, you know, that's how we roll:

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Posted by Amy Elizabeth

kiki072895 / CC

On September 18, 2007, I spent eight hours with Michael Vick at PETA headquarters. He was there to participate in PETA's "Developing Empathy for Animals" course as part of an education process that PETA hoped would ultimately lead Michael to speak out publicly against dogfighting.

In one segment of the course, Michael watched a police training video about the link between violence against animals and violence against humans. It contains graphic footage shot at a dogfight. I watched Michael grimace while watching this footage, in the way that any normal person would. At another point, the video shows a young person hanging a live cat from the ceiling and stabbing the animal to death with a knife. At this point, Michael closed his eyes and turned his head from the screen, seemingly disturbed by what he saw.

Michael also watched a slide-show of photos taken of neglected dogs. He was asked to describe what each animal must have felt in their situation. He aced this part of the course, pointing out that starving dogs living in garbage with heavy, rusty chains around their necks must be "lonely," "sad," and "terrified," and pointed to such indicators as the dogs' tails curled between their legs and their heads bowed in submission. You can see Michael's hand-written responses to the empathy test questions here.

I came away from that meeting encouraged. Even though I felt uncomfortable to be in the same room with a man who had tortured and killed so many animals, Michael seemed like an intelligent and thoughtful person who had made horrible decisions in his life but who regretted the consequences, both for himself and others, and who was genuinely trying to change.

However, despite pledging to become an "ally" in the fight against dogfighting, Michael and his camp have done little more than mouth assurances that he's learned his lesson. Since this meeting, they have only surfaced when Michael has been scheduled for court appearances—until now, when he is asking to get his old job back.

And there is more. Despite the hopes I had for Michael during our meeting, we now know that not only did he lie to the NFL in direct questioning about his activity, he also lied in his lie detector tests after his arrest—something that the recently released USDA report revealed for the first time. We need to know if Michael's post-arrest contrition was part of a flawed human being's genuine growth and development or just part of the machinations of a man with a clinically diagnosable anti-social personality disorder.

Until Michael agrees to submit to a brain scan and psychological evaluation, we have no way of knowing. And until then, PETA will refuse to be a part of a public service announcement that may simply be a public relations ploy from a convicted felon trying to manipulate his way back into the NFL. We hope that the NFL will take the same approach.

Posted by Dan Shannon

This morning, Michael Vick appeared in court to enter a plea of "guilty." Of course, PETA was represented as well. PETA members were on the scene with new posters reflecting Michael's embrace of Christianity. The posters displayed horrific and tragic images of injured dogs used in fighting along with the words "Dogfighters, Repent." The message was that anyone else who's involved in dogfighting needs to stop—now—before they, too, end up in jail, with no friends, no money, and no respect.

Photos from the demonstration are posted below. Let's hope that Michael Vick's fallen star will be a permanent lesson to all would-be dogfighters: just don't do it.

Posted by Amanda Schinke

plong / CC

Loyal readers of The PETA Files know that this is not the first time we have mentioned rapper DMX (whose real name is Earl Simmons). If we wrote about him anymore, we'd have to give him his own chapter filed under "Cruel Scum"—a title that is probably still too kind.

Well, we're sick of DMX … again—and all the other celebrities who think power, money, or fame will get them off the hook for mistreating animals.

We have written a letter to Andrew P. Thomas, the judge overseeing Simmons' charges stemming from a 2007 police raid of the rapper's property north of Phoenix, where 12 pit bulls were reportedly found neglected, malnourished, and messed up. We're asking that Thomas—if Simmons is convicted of these charges—impose a sentence that forbids Simmons from owning or harboring any animals for as long as possible, that imposes a truly meaningful period of incarceration, and that requires him to undergo a thorough psychological evaluation followed by mandatory counseling at his own expense.

In one particularly cruel situation, police apparently found puppies who had been left in their cages so long that they needed to be cut out of them.

DMX has an extensive criminal past—including a similar raid that took place at his home in New Jersey in 2002 (during which police found 13 pit bulls on his property) as well as an arrest for illegal drug possession. People who abuse animals often go on to abuse or even kill humans. Remember Jeffrey Dahmer and Dennis Rader (aka "BTK Killer"), who abused and killed animals for practice prior to killing humans?

You can read our full letter here:

Click the letter to enlarge

Posted by Jennifer Cierlitsky

DMX's album art leaves little doubt as to where he stands on cruelty to pit bulls

Rapper DMX, who apparently thinks cruelty to animals makes him seem tough, was arrested on Friday, after being indicted on felony drug possession and animal cruelty charges, reportedly associated with dogfighting.

The indictment came after reports that dogs were being abused on his property in August led authorities to search his home, where they seized 12 pit bulls and found the bodies of three others buried on his property. I can't say that I'm all that shocked about this arrest, given that DMX has used his music to glorify dogfighting in songs like "Dog Match", where he talks about how his dogs "love to fight" (which is eerily reminiscent of all those folks who've been claiming that horses "love to race" in the wake of Eight Belles' death at the Kentucky Derby).

We've contacted the prosecutor in this case asking him to ensure that, if DMX is convicted, he's given the maximum jail sentence, a ban on owning animals, and mandatory psychiatric counseling. I'll keep you posted.

Well to be fair, this is more of a Part 1-revisited, so if you totally understood the story the first time, feel free to browse through the archives (maybe cast your vote for this week's Vivisector of the Week), but if you had some questions about the whole thing, here's a quick guide to PETA's reasoning behind providing Michael Vick with information about why animals deserve respect, and some key facts about how it all went down:

1. PETA believes that almost anyone can come to understand that animals are capable of suffering and deserve respect, if given a chance. If we didn't, we'd have a pretty hard time getting up in the morning. Only time will tell whether Michael Vick ends up being one of those people.
2. We made it clear both to Michael Vick and the judge that, given the crimes Vick has admitted to, he needs to serve hard time and be banned from any contact with animals. We're glad he paid attention when we gave him information about treating animals with kindness, but the guy still needs to go to prison.
3. This is not a race issue. We don't care if he's orange.
4. This is not a race issue. White people who fight dogs need to fry.
5. This is not a race issue. Are you deaf, or just desperate?
6. We need to give offenders a chance to open their hearts, eyes, and minds to the suffering they've caused. We would not be doing our jobs properly if we spent all day preaching to the choir.
7. Vick is working with children. This makes it all the more important that we arm him with facts about respect for animals and how to treat them.
8. After he took the course, Michael Vick pointed out that NFL players have a bad record of violence and said that he wished he'd taken it years ago. So do we. That's why we're pushing the NFL to include a similar course in empathy for animals for all of its new players.

I hope that clears a few things up. Feel free to let me know if you have any questions at all.

workingpitbull/Creative Commons

The PETA offices have been in overdrive since last night responding to Michael Vick's recent indictment for dogfighting. The vague statement released by the Atlanta Falcons about this disturbing news is simply not sufficient. This morning, hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons, civil rights leader The Rev. Al Sharpton, and PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk sent a letter to all of Vick's corporate sponsors, Falcons CEO Arthur Blank, and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell roundly condemning dogfighting and other forms of violence. You can read that letter here. We are also calling on NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to immediately suspend Michael Vick in light of this indictment. According to Deadspin the indictment includes the following allegations, which highlight exactly how reprehensible this vicious blood sport is:

• "In March 2003, PEACE, after consulting with Vick about the female pit bull's condition, executed the losing dog by wetting the dog down with water and electrocuting the animal."
• "In April 2007, PEACE, PHILLIPS and VICK executed approximately eight dogs that did not perform well in 'testing' sessions by various methods, including hanging, drowning and slamming at least one dog's body to the ground."

Please click here to contact Roger Goodell about this news and ask him to immediately take action. We're doing everything we can to ensure that the news of Vick's alleged involvement in this horrific cruelty is not swept under the rug. I can only hope that the high profile nature of Michael Vick's case helps to shed light on an epidemic that, too often, is not treated with enough gravity by law-enforcement officials, and that needs to be stamped out immediately.

Please click here for an update.

Michael Vick has just been indicted in the investigation of dog-fighting on his Virginia property. I’ll give you more information tomorrow, but in the meantime, this is PETA’s official statement on the topic:

PETA’s offices, located just over an hour away from Michael Vick’s rural mansion—where we now know dozens if not hundreds of dogs were forced to fight to the death in the pit—has been receiving vague allegations of Vick’s involvement in illegal animal fighting activity for years, sadly without much concrete evidence to back it up. While local authorities—who have historically mishandled dogfighting cases—sat on evidence in this case, the U.S. Attorney’s office was obviously determined to get the job done. The professional sports world is plagued with players who have been accused, charged, or convicted of cruelty to animals, abusing pit bulls, and dog fighting, and we hope that this indictment sends a loud and clear message to players and the NFL that celebrity is not a sufficient excuse for breaking the law, and that animal abuse should never be tolerated under any circumstances.
-PETA Director Daphna Nachminovitch

Ladell Betts: Badass

I'm no football expert, and this isn't exactly a sports blog, but I thought I'd start off the day with three great reasons why Ladell Betts should start instead of Clinton Portis as the Washington Redskins Running Back this year:

1. Ladell Betts doesn't have a chronic shoulder injury.
2. Ladell Betts knows how to follow his blockers.
3. Ladell Betts doesn't frickin' come out on national television and defend animal abuse.

For those of you who haven't heard about that last part yet, here's what Portis said to reporters about the Michael Vick dogfighting scandal:

"I think people should mind their business, you know. I don't know if he was fighting dogs or not, but it's his property, his dog, if that's what he wants to do, do it. … It can't be too bad of a crime. There's a lot of stuff that's crimes, you know. It's killers on the loose over here and you want to hunt down Michael Vick over fighting some dogs."

Clinton Portis: Joker

Clinton, buddy, I stuck by you through your lousy, injury-ridden season last year, but I think this may be the end of the road for us. There's a great article about the story on Fox Sports, which you can check out here. And you can watch a little bit more about what dogfighting is all about here. I'm thinking Portis should be made to review that video while the rest of the team is watching game tape next year.

Vick drops the ball

You've probably heard by now about the alleged dogfighting ring that was uncovered in a raid on Michael Vick's property last week. Vick has been vigorously denying any involvement in the operation, and I really, really want to believe him, because he genuinely is a fantastic quarterback. Unfortunately, the man's versatility in the pocket is at best dubious proof of his innocence in this case, and things are looking even more bleak for the Falcons QB after Deadspin reported on another apparent link between Vick and the property. According to info published on Deadspin:

"A Web site associated with a Michael Vick company, MV7, LLC, professes to be in the business of breeding pit bulls and other dogs as pets not for fighting. VicksK9Kennels.com states that, "We do not promote, support or raise dogs for fighting and will not knowingly sell, give, or trade any dog that may be used for fighting." The property Vick owns in Virginia where dozens of dogs were confiscated last week in a dog-fighting investigation is listed as the address for the Web site and the company, 1915 Moonlight Road, Smithfield, Va."

Um, yeah. We're still calling on the Falcons to suspend Vick until this has been cleared up, and to release him from the team if animals on his property are found to have been neglected or used for fighting. For my own part, unless he is able to absolve himself completely of all this, I will not be selecting Michael Vick for my fantasy football team this year. It's called tough love, Michael.

See Also:

Deadspin
USA Today

Like most people, I love to watch the man play football, but if the allegations I heard today are true, I'm not sure I ever want to see Michael Vick suit up for a game again. According to news reports, local and state law enforcement discovered more than 60 pit bulls and other dogs on Vick's property in Surry County Virginia yesterday, who showed signs of serious abuse that is consistent with having been used for fighting. Officials also evidently discovered dogfighting paraphernalia, including a “rape stand” on the premises. These are deadly serious allegations, and it's immensely distressing to see such a high-profile athlete accused of this kind of cruelty. PETA is calling on the Atlanta Falcons to immediately suspend Vick pending the outcome of the investigation, and if animals on his property are found to have been neglected or used for fighting, we're asking that he be released from the team.” You can help out by clicking here to write to the Falcons about this issue, and for more information you can read our letter to Falcons Owner Arthur Blank.

The Atlanta Falcons should be kicking themselves right now that they traded away backup QB Matt Schaub this offseason, but even a year with Joey Harrington at the helm is better than having your team led by someone with a mark like this on their record.